WCD was the first organization for women sitting on corporate boards, arguably the most powerful group of women in the world. A combination of best-practices institute and lobbying organization urging boards to raise their percentage of women directors, this community of trust has become a unique refuge for a global group of women who are changing the way the world does business.

And this includes how boards are becoming more activist, and less tolerant of #metoo behavior, or any kinds of harassment within their organizations. It appears from anecdotal evidence at least that it is the women board directors who are sparking changed attitudes on their boards, and within their companies.

"Let me share with you our first conference in Latin America in March in Chile. President Bachelet came. Women directors came from all over the world. The head of the stock exchange called and said, 'We would like to have women for the first time ring the bell at the Chilean stock exchange.'

"I said, 'We can’t do that. The stock exchange board is 11 white men. When you elect women on the board of the stock exchange, we’ll come ring the bell.” They called back a day later and said, “We can’t get it done in the next month, but if we promise you that by the time that you ring that bell, we will have a woman nominated, will you ring the bell?” And we did and now there is a woman on the board of the Chilean stock exchange."

From the Dining Table to the Board Table

The story goes that WCD was started around Susan's dining room table in New York City. Says one of those who was also at that table, Elaine Eisenman, a corporate director since 1996 and former Dean of Executive Education at Babson College, "Susan is a force of nature -- forget about necessity, Susan is the mother of invention. Her impact is quiet but constant as she enlists others by building what, in the short-term looks impossible, and in the long-term is beyond one's ability to imagine."

"Without Susan, and her ability to move mountains, we may have never left our seats at that very small table," says Elaine.